What new home growers wish they’d known before starting out
Home growing seems like a straightforward experience at first, but when you get into it, there’s a lot of nuance. There’s a lot of information online, an overwhelming amount of products and approaches, and there needs to be some discerning view on what’s applicable and what’s not.
Most home growers reflect on their beginnings fondly yet with the clarity that comes with lessons learned over time. The good news about the most important lessons is that they’re relatively easy—it’s just a matter of taking the time to learn them.
Less is more – at first
The most consistent piece of advice from seasoned home growers reflects the sentiment that it’s better to start smaller than anticipated. It’s easy to want to jump in head first and create an entire home growing operation from the beginning, but this almost always complicates things more than a novice can manage. Fewer plants and a more focused endeavor allow for genuine attention to each developed plant and a good time.
This applies to strain choice as well. One or two strains and learning them well provides far more useful information in the long run than trying to compartmentalize a time allotment over six varieties from the start. A new grower learns far more from depth of experience with one variety than surface-level experience with many.
Getting quality genetics right away
Many new growers start way too small without realizing how much seed quality will affect their efforts. Poor genetics lead to poor experiences from germination, and poor experiences lead to frustration from the beginning, meaning quality seeds from reputable sources provide a path of least resistance throughout each phase of growing.
Honest grower reviews make a difference when investing in a provider for their purchases—using sites like CG Australia (along with review sites in general) provide first-hand info that empowers new growers to feel more confident with their choices for viable genetics, among other factors.
The lesson here is that the few dollars saved in seed choice over value never equate to the frustration of poor germination efforts, inconsistent plants, etc. New growers need to get their genetics right from the get-go, as it’s one of the highest value choices they can make.
The environment is more important than most assume
When new growers enter the home-growing space, they tend to think about nutrients, feed schedules, etc., without recognizing how much the environment plays a role in growing success. Temperature and humidity considerations, airflow dynamics, and a level of consistency help plants develop better than they would otherwise. Getting these factors down as early as possible creates a space where everything else should fall into place naturally.
This doesn’t need to be overly technical. Figuring out what one’s plants need and situating their environment to make that happen consistently makes all the difference. For example, inexpensive additions and adjustments—a thermometer/hygrometer combo to monitor progress, ventilation improvements, light cycle consistency—yield much better results than expensive nutrient upgrades.
Practice patience early
One of the biggest challenges new growers face is the urge to fiddle. To switch up, add in, take away, and inevitably mess with what could easily be working if given time. When in stable conditions, nearly all plants need time to progress. Unless something’s clearly wrong, letting nature take its course often resolves what’s seen as an issue over time without any intervention.
A novice has all the room in the world to develop patience as an acquired skill. However, coming into the game already able to do so boasts tremendous benefits. When something appears wrong, researching best practices without making immediate changes—or reacting at all—makes all the difference in finding solutions. Most home grown issues result in simple conclusions that compound bad problems when multiple changes are made simultaneously.
The community is there for help
One of the most surprising elements of new growers is how generous and welcoming the home-growing community often is. Forums, review pages, growing groups feature seasoned growers who enjoy providing newcomers with advice. Questions can be asked; threads can be read; other people’s trials and tribulations can be engagingly absorbed—and all of this shortens the learning curve substantially.
Nobody arrives as an expert, and the growers who progress most quickly tend to be the ones who ask questions openly and apply what they learn with genuine curiosity. The community aspect of home growing is one of its most underrated pleasures, and tapping into it early makes a real difference to how the experience unfolds. Starting out well-informed and well-supported sets the tone for everything that follows — and makes those early grows far more rewarding than they might otherwise be.
